Fyrish Monument and its colonial history (Patreon)

The weekend right before Summer Solstice was my first travel holiday this year. Having a privilege to live in the Scottish Highlands I didn't need to go very far. Evanton is 30 minutes bus ride from Inverness. We booked ourselves a small luxury pod for three nights and got to explore the area. 

The longest walk we did was to Fyrish Monument in nearby Alness. The route can be found on walkhighlands website. It starts at a small car park and leads through beautiful woodland eventually reaching moorland with awesome views of Cromarty Firth. 

The monument itself although quite pretty feels like a scar on the landscape. It was built on the orders of British army general Sir Hector Munro. The monument represents the Gate of Negapatam in India and it commemorates the siege of Negapatam and the second Anglo-Mysore War. It celebrates British Colonialism.

To add to the discomfort it was built by the locals who during the Highland_Clearances suffered poverty. Hector Munro felt they were lazy and needed something to do. He apparently got people to transport rocks from afar and then would roll them back down the hill to increase the time and effort it took to build this monument. He claimed that this scheme was a positive thing because it provided work and therefore a wage to impoverished locals. Since he was a land owner he most likely personally benefited from Highland Clearances. It seems to me that it was a narcissistic indulgence hidden behind a mask of humanitarian action.

I found history behind this monument very uncomfortable. I can not imagine anyone of Indian heritage enjoying this piece of egotistical power display. My discomfort meant that I didn't actually read a plaque that is on a nearby stone. Perhaps I should have done so. 

My personal feeling is that this monument should either go all together or if it is going to stay it should be a place to honour the suffering that British caused in India and to the crofter community in the Highlands. 

Visiting this place makes me think that we really need some kind of decolonise Scottish  Highlands project.